This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “By Way of Reminder” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 8, 1996.
Tonight we are reading from Romans chapter 8, beginning with verse 28. This is Romans chapter 8, verse 28. Give your attention to God’s holy word. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And whom He predestined, these He also called, and whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather, who is raised. He is at the right hand of God and also intercedes for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our Father, we ask for that continuing work from You, that we who are the beneficiaries of Your salvation would show forth the humility that is resident in Christ, the one by whom we are saved. Lord, if there is restoration for us through this one who bears perfectly Your image, then, O God, we know that as humility has adorned Him, humility must also adorn us. We, having been made sons, are being conformed to the image of the Son. And, Father, be with us in our pride. To this end, O God, help us with the means of grace, help us in our relationships with one another, and bless and strengthen this fellowship even according to Your grace.
This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Tonight I am bringing to a close these messages by way of reminder. Now I realize that some of you may have some argument with me in my approach throughout this series. For I have taken the approach of addressing this matter along historical lines, that is to say, with an event consciousness, at the very center of my approach. We started by remembering the Reformation and the way in which the Reformation laid hold of the finality and the sufficiency of Christ’s work.
There we were focusing upon the event of God’s redemption, and this in contrast to the Roman Catholic Church’s inability and even refusal to present such teaching. As we noted, the Reformation turned upon the Apostle Paul and Luther’s rediscovery of the gospel. The Reformation turned upon that gospel of salvation by sovereign grace through faith apart from the works of the law. But we also saw that this gospel of justification for sinners was part of a larger picture, namely the grand and expansive transition from the old fleshly order to the new eternal order of the Spirit, and that the justification of sinners is actually a part of this new, wider, grander administration, in which our condemnation has been removed. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for those who walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh.
We then connected Paul’s teaching about the Spirit to Christ’s teaching about the kingdom, recognizing how the two messages coincide, in keeping with the focus upon the gracious arrival of God’s new administration, and that administration’s future fulfillment when the coming of the kingdom shall be consummated.
Because of this divine economy, we are accustomed to speak about the already and the not yet, that with respect to the message that the Apostle Paul puts forward, and that with respect to the message that Jesus Christ puts forward in his teaching concerning the kingdom. But the Gospel of John makes it clear that this already-not-yet reality of the Christian life is oriented toward heaven. The already of our salvation is a participation, while we are yet in this world, in the eternal life of glory. The not yet is the fact that while we are in our bodies, we are as yet not raised from the dead, as we shall be on the last day.
Having worked our way back through the Reformation to Paul, and from there to the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—and from there to the Gospel of John, we then took account of the covenant. Our hope here was the recovery of that sense of communion and bond between God and His people, which is at the center of the covenantal relationship. It is important to stress here that our objective is not to dismiss the law, which has functioned so prominently in Reformed exposition of the covenant. It is to see that the law has a supportive and subordinate role in relation to the wider issues at stake in the covenant. But neither is it to dismiss the family, which also has functioned so prominently in Reformed exposition of the covenant. For we see that the family is supportive and, at the same time, subordinate to the wider vision of the covenant.
All along in this series, we have been offering a different perspective on those things that we have often heard about the Reformed faith. As I said at the beginning of this message, our approach has been what we might call historical, in the sense that we have emphasized the historical development in distinction to the purely logical and systematic. In putting things within this frame, my interest has been, by way of reminder, to refresh you in the orientation of this pulpit. This orientation, endeavor, sets before us the event character of our faith, always proclaiming to us our relationship to what God has accomplished for us, principally in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. But having said this and emphasized it again, let me conclude this series with a brief and clear statement, I hope, of the logical and systematic orientation of this pulpit, namely as it devolves upon the five points of Calvinism.
As you know, John Calvin did not originate the five points that bear his name. They were actually formulated by the Dutch Reformed Church about sixty years after his death as a response to the five points of Arminianism. These points have been affectionately remembered by the acronym TULIP: T-U-L-I-P. The T stands for total depravity, and it expresses the Calvinist doctrine of humanity.
Here, the Calvinist affirms the scriptural teaching that human beings are born in sin. The Calvinist does not avoid this truth, as seen in David’s confession in Psalm 51: “In sin did my mother conceive me.” According to Scripture, sinners are therefore dead in relation to God and unable to do spiritual good. As the Apostle Paul writes, “We were dead in our transgressions and in our sins.” To paraphrase the Apostle Paul again, we are hostile toward God. We do not submit to God’s law, nor are we able to do so. Romans 8, verse 7.
But if this is true, how can anyone be saved? If we are affected in every part of our being, and there is no part of our nature to which we can turn or appeal, how can we be saved if we are left with a total inability to do spiritual good? What hope remains for us?
The answer to this question leads us to the U in the acronym, which stands for Unconditional Election, and it establishes our doctrine of God. If humanity is totally depraved and incapable of all spiritual good, then God Himself must save us. And if there is nothing in us naturally to distinguish one sinner from another, then God’s choice of any individual cannot be based on anything within us. If our salvation is not based on anything in us, it cannot be based on anything or anyone affecting us.
It therefore must be eternal, belonging to God’s own sovereign disposition and choice, an unconditional election of sinners for salvation, for whom God foreloved He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. But if God loves and elects from all eternity those He is determined to save, that means that in the very act of salvation He sovereignly works on behalf of His elect and His elect only. Here we are brought to the L of TULIP, and the doctrine of the limited atonement, and the Calvinist doctrine of Christ, and the efficacy of His work.
One of the notable aspects of the history of the Church is the way in which the Arminian tradition has appealed to the Gospel of John to support its theology. They believe they find evidence for their doctrine of the universal atonement in passages such as John 12:9 and in John the Baptist’s statement, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” This statement, however, was not understood by those very people. The fact is that Jesus Himself testifies in this same gospel, the Gospel of John, when He says, “I lay down My life for My sheep,” John 10:15. And with equal force, Jesus says in His high priestly prayer, “You granted Me authority over all people, that I might give eternal life to all whom You have granted Me,” John 17:2. Truly, as the angel announced to Joseph before Jesus’ birth, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins,” Matthew 1:21.
But be assured, Christ’s death, as the Calvinist has taught, does not offer a universal opportunity for salvation, as the Arminian claims. Rather, it actually saves God’s elect. But now, Christ having died for His own, how are His own to be made partakers of His saving death?
The Calvinist here introduces the doctrine of the Holy Spirit under the letter I, which stands for irresistible grace. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. So says Christ himself in John 3, verse 6. Ezekiel will prophesy over dead bones, and they, by the movement of the Spirit as in a mighty wind, will come to life. This is a powerful, divinely given picture of the irresistible workings of the Holy Spirit to make God’s people the beneficiaries of His saving activity. Jesus will call a dead Lazarus from the grave. Again, this is a powerful, divinely given picture of the irresistible efficacy of the Spirit’s ministry for God’s elect. Jesus emphatically states, “All whom the Father gives me, come to me.” John 6, verse 37.
It is the Spirit who gives life and sovereignly applies it, the saving efficacy of salvation, to God’s elect and God’s elect alone. But if God’s intention is eternal and His election irrevocable, and if Christ’s death actually saves the elect and the Holy Spirit applies salvation to them, can the elect be lost?
This brings us to the last letter, P, and the perseverance of the saints, the Calvinist doctrine of the Church. Christ has promised that the gates of hell, that is, the gates of death, shall not prevail against His Church. The Church, in her salvation, partakes of a continuing promise.
But this is not simply a consideration that applies to the corporate body. It also applies to individuals who make up the Church. Christ’s prayers are effectual for Peter. I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail. Although Peter, through great struggle, confirms his election and makes his calling and election sure in a hard-fought battle for perseverance. Jesus testifies elsewhere that He who comes to Him, He will in no wise cast out. Once more, John 6, 37. Jesus further promises to the same people that He will raise them up on the last day. John 6, 40.
But it is when coming to the end that the Calvinist truly, in all the humility that his gospel demands, steps forward in the most fervent acclamation. For envisioning the saint’s perseverance and standing in the presence of God, the Calvinist at one and the same time is overwhelmed by the incomparable glory of God, and knows without any qualification or hesitation that it is only because of God, and God alone, that he has been brought to glory. In the day of God’s great appearance and the completion of all His purposes regarding this creation, each one of God’s children will confess the true doctrine in full and sweet harmony.
Our Father, by Your mercy, You, even now, place us in a position where we can view the end of all things. And as we do, Lord, we are set before Your glory. And having been so set, we are never the same again. Truly, O God, we who confess this Reformed faith have, by Your mercy, been transformed even by a vision of Your glory, the magnificence of Your sovereignty, and the fact that in Your presence we cannot but acknowledge that our salvation is from You, completely and wholly. We ask now that You will bless us as Your children, encourage Your Reformed Church throughout the world, and it would please You to bless the Reformed faith so that Your name may be glorified and magnified by Your children who have perceived the end of the matter and see things clearly, see things in the light of the revelation You make of Yourself, yes, in Your Word, unto the end itself. Be pleased, Lord, to magnify Your name in our confession and help us to live obediently in keeping with the revelation You have given of Yourself. And, Father, may it please You also to give us hearts that readily embrace the doctrines of grace and cherish them for all that we are worth. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.